It is often desirable to store a substance, such as a liquid, solid, gas or mixtures thereof, in a container prior to mixing with another substance(s). For example, it can be desirable to package and store a composition, or compositions, in a container for shipping and/or safe storage and handling, prior to combining with another material. A particular example is in the case of a toxic compound which needs to be stored securely within a container, prior to combining such a toxic compound with a detoxifying material. Another example is the case in which one or more concentrated active compositions need to be maintained separate from a diluent until immediately prior to use. Moreover, it can be desirable to store and/or ship diagnostic and/or biologic preserving compositions prior to combining such compositions with a biological sample. For example, it can be useful to keep one or more reagent compositions isolated from a donor until the donor's biological sample has been collected and deposited into a sample receiving device. This is particularly useful in preventing or minimizing accidental ingestion, contact or loss of the one or more reagent compositions during sample collection.
It can also be desirable to inactivate pathogens/infectious particles in a biological sample by combining it with a stored substance prior to storage and/or shipping and/or handling of the sample.
There are a variety of containers for holding substances separately in such a manner that a user may open a closure to combine the substances. Typically these containers are double compartment systems in which substances are stored separately and substances are combined by removal of the container closures by a user.
International PCT application WO 2003/104251 describes a container for collecting a biological sample from a subject, and subsequently mixing the collected sample with a composition intended to stabilize, preserve, or facilitate the recovery of components of the sample. This container has a first region for collecting a biological sample, a second region containing a composition for preserving a nucleic acid, and a barrier between the first region and the second region, which when in a closed position, maintains the sample and composition separate. The exemplified barrier of WO 2003/104251 is a pivoting partition. Attachment of a lid to the container forces the barrier to pivot from its original closed position spanning the container and thereby separating the first region and the second region, to an open position in which both regions are exposed to each other and contact between the composition contained in one region space and the biological sample contained in the other region is allowed. A drawback of this container is that it includes multiple parts (e.g., lid, vial, disk, rod, rod holder), which increases the cost of manufacture of the container. Additionally, because the disk is held in place by friction fit, there must be a high degree of precision for the manufacture of the components of the container. While the shape and size this container is well suited for collecting a biological sample from a donor, it does not lend itself well to high throughput analysis/testing or automation and is bulky/costly to transport.
International PCT Application No. PCT/CA2006/002009 describes a container system for releasably storing a substance. The container system includes a vial having a sample storage chamber and a piercing member for piercing a membrane in the lid, which membrane seals a substance within a reservoir in the lid until the membrane is pierced by the piercing member. The examples provided in this patent application disclose release of the substance as a result of twisting the lid during closing. The disclosed container system has two separate parts, requiring the user to properly align the lid and base before twisting on the lid.
Additionally, it may be desirable to use a sample receiving device that facilitates safe and effective sample collection by untrained and/or unsupervised donors. For example, where samples can be collected at home or remote locations where here is no access to medical personnel.
Typically, previous sample receiving devices relied on direct deposit of a sample in the device, or use of a sponge or absorbent tool/applicator which is deposited and held within the collection device together with the sample and storage solution (if present). Depending upon the nature of the substance released from the reservoir, the sponge may disintegrate and/or chemicals (e.g., adhesives) may be leached from the sponge and contaminate the sample. Importantly, the presence of the sponge/applicator in the sample may interfere with down-stream analysis, e.g., processing using liquid-handling robots. Liquid-handling robots may register an error upon contacting/colliding with a sponge in a sample; the robot may pierce through the sponge and successfully withdraw an aliquot, but inadvertently contaminate nearby samples as the pipette (with impaled sponge) passes over open tubes; there may be too little ‘free’ sample in the device for a robot or technician to recover for testing (i.e. the sponge soaks up and retains the sample-substance). In this case, extra handling is required to 1) manually remove the sponge(s) from the sample prior to storage and/or analysis, 2) manually recover sample retained within the sponge, and 3) pool ‘recovered’ sample with ‘free’ sample. It would be preferable to use a sample receiving device and a sample collection device without having to leave/deposit the applicator in the container.
There remains a need for an improved sample receiving device for releasably and reliably storing one or more substances.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.